Her face brightened.
"What is going on, Daisy?"
"Preston has been getting up some tableaux, Dr. Sandford, to be done by
the young people."
"Are you one of the young people?"
"They have got me in," said Daisy.
"Misled by your appearance? What are you going to play, Daisy?"
Daisy ran off to a table and brought him a little bill of the
performances. The doctor ran his eye over it.
"I shall know what it means, I suppose, when I see the pictures. What is
this 'Game of Life?'"
"It is Retsch's engraving," Daisy answered, as sedately as if she had
been forty years old.
"Retsch! yes, I know him--but what does the thing mean?"
"It is supposed to be the devil playing with a young man--for his soul,"
Daisy said very gravely.
"Who plays the devil?"
"Preston does."
"And who is to be the angel?"
"I am to be the angel," said Daisy.
"Very judicious. How do you like this new play, Daisy?"
"It is very amusing. I like to see the pictures."
"Not to be in them?"
"I think not, Dr. Sandford."
"Daisy, what else are you doing, besides playing tableaux, all these
days?"
"I drive about a good deal," said Daisy. Then looking up at her friend
with an entirely new expression, a light shining in her eye and a
subdued sweetness coming into her smile, she added--
"Molly is learning to read, Dr. Sandford."
"Molly!" said the doctor.
"Yes. You advised me to ask leave to go to see her, and I did, and I got
it."
Daisy's words were a little undertone; the look that went with them the
doctor never forgot as long as he lived.
Pages:
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275